Rega Aura versus Naim Superline

Posted by: Filipe on 09 November 2018

I’ve just got a demo Rega Aura, and it does exactly what Rega claim. It just hits you immediately with the excitement it delivers. It’s not even had much time to warm up.

Has anyone else listened to it and compared it to the Superline powered off the preamp (252 in my case). The downside of the Superline for me will be that I have Superlumina RCA to DIN which would be redundant.

I’m back from walking 729km from Pamplona to Santiago de Compostela (Camino Frances) between 29 September and 25 October. Not bad for a septuagenarian. An amazing experience. My blog is on Facebook from RoboCap dot .org dot uk. I discovered I have a talent for creativite writing. Lots of beautiful photos.

Phil

Posted on: 04 January 2019 by Filipe

I gave the system it’s periodic dust, connector in/outs and redress. Not unexpectedly it lost it’s finesse. It is returning. I would be interested to know how long others think it takes. Early Genesis is a very good test.

The Aura demo was not altogether a success because there was an intermittent loose connection (hum when cable moved) on the black output connector. It sounded better than the Aria but not up to the wonderful level of first time demo. So another demo scheduled!

Phil

Posted on: 06 January 2019 by Filipe

I’m mighty impressed at how good the Aria sounds after biting the bullet to Spring clean the system and improve the cable dressing. It’s only fair to point out that the Aria is connected to the 252 with SL phono to DIN costing 3 times the price of the Aria! That was one of my gripes about the Naim Superline.

Phil

Posted on: 06 January 2019 by Aric

Phil,

Curious if you’ve experimented with the RCA to DIN IC between Aria and 252? I have an Aria and 52 connected via older Chord IC and have wondered if something at SL level would be lost on the Aria?

Aric

Posted on: 06 January 2019 by Filipe

Aric, The Aria as many will tell you is an exceptional phonostage. In the limited time I demoed the Superline using new HiCap DR, SNAIC and 4-5 DIN it was miles away from the SQ of my setup. I dare say a SuperCap might have bettered it in time. The Rega Aura phonostage is even better.

I tried Chord Anthem (phono to DIN) and the next one up at £800 (all phono) and much preferred the Rega Couple 2, but the SL was in a different league and it gave me the full SL synergy. The DIN input is recommended by everyone.

Phil

Posted on: 06 January 2019 by Filipe

Continuing

The DIN input is recommended by everyone. The SL phono plugs are very special and use a special smaller version of the SL DIN Airplug with lots of separate ring sections.

Phil

Posted on: 06 January 2019 by Rotifer217

Hi Phil and others, I know this is a bit off topic but I just wondered is your aria was slightly on the warm side (to the touch). Mine seems to be regardless of whether I'm playing vinyl or not. It was particularly warm yesterday (on both sides and top of box), although it was 36 degrees celcius outside which may explain the increase.

Posted on: 06 January 2019 by Filipe

Rotifer217 posted:
Hi Phil and others, I know this is a bit off topic but I just wondered is your aria was slightly on the warm side (to the touch). Mine seems to be regardless of whether I'm playing vinyl or not. It was particularly warm yesterday (on both sides and top of box), although it was 36 degrees celcius outside which may explain the increase.

Rotifer, It’s a mild English winter here with the occasional frost. The stat is at 22ºC and the box feels neither hot nor cold to touch having been on all day.

Phil